I think people would have an easier time understanding what is going on here if it weren't for the misconception that the SFI file is the "radio" file.

What the SFI file truly is, is the main kernel of the OS. It contains all of the hardware "drivers" to make the components of the phone work with the OS and the apps. Yes, the "radio" is one of the components controlled by the SFI, but so is everything else (bluetooth, audio, graphics, memory allocation, file I/O, etc. - including the camera)

The problem with .191 lies somewhere in the "driver" for the camera. It would seem that the "driver" is somehow incompatible with the camera app from prior builds, and also incompatible with the camera app that it itself contains. Perhaps the "driver" in .191 has already been updated to support "HD" recording and the application itself isn't ready yet. What appears to be happening is the camera app launches, and tries to access the driver. At that point, something akin to a UNIX kernel panic results, causing a reboot.

I honestly think what we're seeing is a case of the Applications not being caught up with the platform. Same thing that causes problems with other apps, just this time, it's affecting one of the core apps of the device. This isn't too surprising though, as I understand it .191 isn't a release that's actually destined for carrier testing, so it's most likely purpose is something RIM is testing internally. And for what they're testing, it probably made no difference that the camera doesn't work.

I think there are other flaky things going on hardware-wise in this OS, as USB operation seems VERY sketchy (especially multi-megabyte file transfers to the media card) and also apploader reporting 131MB of free app memory during the install. I am getting the feeling that RIM is playing around with memory partitioning or something, and perhaps at some point we will suddenly have 256MB of App memory instead of the 128MB we have now.

I think people would have an easier time understanding what is going on here if it weren't for the misconception that the SFI file is the "radio" file.

What the SFI file truly is, is the main kernel of the OS. It contains all of the hardware "drivers" to make the components of the phone work with the OS and the apps. Yes, the "radio" is one of the components controlled by the SFI, but so is everything else (bluetooth, audio, graphics, memory allocation, file I/O, etc. - including the camera)

The problem with .191 lies somewhere in the "driver" for the camera. It would seem that the "driver" is somehow incompatible with the camera app from prior builds, and also incompatible with the camera app that it itself contains. Perhaps the "driver" in .191 has already been updated to support "HD" recording and the application itself isn't ready yet. What appears to be happening is the camera app launches, and tries to access the driver. At that point, something akin to a UNIX kernel panic results, causing a reboot.

I honestly think what we're seeing is a case of the Applications not being caught up with the platform. Same thing that causes problems with other apps, just this time, it's affecting one of the core apps of the device. This isn't too surprising though, as I understand it .191 isn't a release that's actually destined for carrier testing, so it's most likely purpose is something RIM is testing internally. And for what they're testing, it probably made no difference that the camera doesn't work.

I think there are other flaky things going on hardware-wise in this OS, as USB operation seems VERY sketchy (especially multi-megabyte file transfers to the media card) and also apploader reporting 131MB of free app memory during the install. I am getting the feeling that RIM is playing around with memory partitioning or something, and perhaps at some point we will suddenly have 256MB of App memory instead of the 128MB we have now.

Well I hope they are "playing" ... Obviously that guy from apple they grabbed has been working hard haha... Ill be impressed if they updated the cam..granted its not like iphone 3gs now..I recorded a great video of fireworks and it picked it all up even with flashing...

App memory would be a great improvement to... the ? is whos got our next leak im anxious again haha

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I think people would have an easier time understanding what is going on here if it weren't for the misconception that the SFI file is the "radio" file.

What the SFI file truly is, is the main kernel of the OS. It contains all of the hardware "drivers" to make the components of the phone work with the OS and the apps. Yes, the "radio" is one of the components controlled by the SFI, but so is everything else (bluetooth, audio, graphics, memory allocation, file I/O, etc. - including the camera)

The problem with .191 lies somewhere in the "driver" for the camera. It would seem that the "driver" is somehow incompatible with the camera app from prior builds, and also incompatible with the camera app that it itself contains. Perhaps the "driver" in .191 has already been updated to support "HD" recording and the application itself isn't ready yet. What appears to be happening is the camera app launches, and tries to access the driver. At that point, something akin to a UNIX kernel panic results, causing a reboot.

I honestly think what we're seeing is a case of the Applications not being caught up with the platform. Same thing that causes problems with other apps, just this time, it's affecting one of the core apps of the device. This isn't too surprising though, as I understand it .191 isn't a release that's actually destined for carrier testing, so it's most likely purpose is something RIM is testing internally. And for what they're testing, it probably made no difference that the camera doesn't work.

I think there are other flaky things going on hardware-wise in this OS, as USB operation seems VERY sketchy (especially multi-megabyte file transfers to the media card) and also apploader reporting 131MB of free app memory during the install. I am getting the feeling that RIM is playing around with memory partitioning or something, and perhaps at some point we will suddenly have 256MB of App memory instead of the 128MB we have now.

so then the ? i have in this scenario is does swap a radio swap the .sfi or the actual radio?

It swaps the whole SFI. It is not possible to swap just the radio as that is just one small facet of the SFI.

Yep, and to give further explanation, by doing so (Swap-A-Radio); you're TECHNICALLY downgrading to an older core OS, and running the Applications from a newer OS. Think of it like this:

By swapping the SFI file of 4.7.0.151 (for example) with the SFI file from 4.7.0.148; you're essentially downgrading the core OS. Think of it as being similar to downgrading a Windows 7 computer to Windows Vista, and copying the Windows 7 apps (Wordpad, Paint, Calculator, Movie Maker, etc) to your Vista install. You're still running Vista, but benefit from the upgraded version of paint/calculator/etc.

A BlackBerry OS filename is so long because the version numbers apply to different things. The filename:

PBr4.7.0_rel208_PL4.0.0.186_A4.7.0.151_Iusacell.ex e

tells us several things.

1st off is the release number. In .151s case, it is Release 208 of 4.7.0
2nd is the platform (SFI) version. In this case 4.0.0.186
3rd is the Applications version. In this case, 4.7.0.151

It seems that when we talk about BlackBerry OSes, we tend to refer to the Applications version. I am not so sure why, as that is not where the true capabilities of the OS lie. It would technically be more correct to refer to the platform version..... In which case, what we call 4.7.0.151 would be known as 4.0.0.186

To get an idea how swapping the SFI downgrades your OS, use swap-a-radio to switch to an older SFI and see how your platform version drops.

The reason the 5.0 OS is significantly different is the fact that it's on a 4.2.0 platform. This also accounts for the app incompatibilities with 3rd party apps. It's like the difference between Windows Mobile 6.1 and Windows Mobile 6.5 - not everything will be compatible.

It seems that when we talk about BlackBerry OSes, we tend to refer to the Applications version. I am not so sure why, as that is not where the true capabilities of the OS lie. It would technically be more correct to refer to the platform version..... In which case, what we call 4.7.0.151 would be known as 4.0.0.186

Just not comfortable with this release, loosing the camera and the list of applications that won't run have pushed me to hold out for the great mod guys here to worTk their magic.

Thanks to all the people working on theses issues :1244:

If you've read the past several pages of threads, the awful truth is that no matter how hard people work on the issues, they are rooted in the SFI file and cannot be fixed. The SFI file is not modular, like the Applications are.

Even if the SFI file were hex-edited to make the necessary changes, the digital signature wouldn't match on the file any longer, and thus it would be impossible to get the file on your device.

And as far as I know, only RIM themselves have the capacity to sign SFI files.

All of this security is good in a way, though. You can pretty much rest assured that if a leak installs on your device, it's legit.

RSS Feeds in v5.0 browser!

While they took out Tabbed browsing (no biggie for most I'd bet), they've added RSS feeds. If you're running .191 (on the Storm anyway, I don't know about the Tour) and you're on a page with an RSS feed hit the BB button & an Add Feed option is now available. Take a look, there are nice options to set for the feeds as well.

I just found something kind of neat.. maybe you all have caught this but either way... I was checkin out all my emails, flicking through quick in the email list and notice the "Date separater ribbon" that separates each day was looking all glitchy when I scrolled quick... but then I noticed the reason why.. slowly scroll up up and the ribbon pushes the other out of view and takes its place.. that's kind of a neat little animation... I thought it was my late night eyes and never seen it before.. I believe this wasn't in the other builds...

This is a pretty neat feature when you look at it close... lol sometimes the little things that get me

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I just found something kind of neat.. maybe you all have caught this but either way... I was checkin out all my emails, flicking through quick in the email list and notice the "Date separater ribbon" that separates each day was looking all glitchy when I scrolled quick... but then I noticed the reason why.. slowly scroll up up and the ribbon pushes the other out of view and takes its place.. that's kind of a neat little animation... I thought it was my late night eyes and never seen it before.. I believe this wasn't in the other builds...

This is a pretty neat feature when you look at it close... lol sometimes the little things that get me